Feb. 15, 2014
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by Bill Keveney, USA TODAY

by Bill Keveney, USA TODAY

Piers Morgan, a CNN talk host and former British newspaper editor, was interviewed late last year by London police in connection with an investigation into phone hacking at a newspaper where he had worked.

Morgan - who has been host of Piers Morgan Live, a weeknight CNN interview show, since 2011 - confirmed the meeting in a statement Friday, according to a CNN story. He has not been charged, police say.

The revelation that newspaper staffers had hacked into telephone voice mail to get stories has been a huge issue in the U.K. in recent years. Rupert Murdoch's The News of the World closed in 2011 after news emerged of such practices.

Morgan, 48, who edited the rival Daily Mirror from 1995 to 2004, has denied knowledge of phone hacking while he was editor. The talk host, who previously was a judge on America's Got Talent, was interviewed by police in December.

"In early November I was asked to attend an interview by officers from Operation Weeting when I was next in the U.K.," Morgan said in a statement, according to the CNN story. "This was further to a full witness statement I had already freely provided. I attended that interview as requested on 6 December 2013."

Operation Weeting is the name of the hacking inquiry. London police issued a statement that a 48-year-old journalist was interviewed in connection with Operation Golding, which police say is "a strand" of Weeting related to allegations of phone hacking at the Mirror newspapers. Police would not name the interview subject, but the age matches Morgan and the interview date is the same as the one in his statement.

The police statement said: "A 48-year-old man, a journalist, was interviewed under caution on 6 December 2013 by officers from Operation Golding in connection with suspected conspiracy to intercept telephone voicemails. He was interviewed by appointment at a south London police station. He was not arrested."